Chapter 27: Rise

  "Hmph, I'll take this Ironback Bear's Core and the treasure in the cave!"

  Lu Qingfeng smiled gloomily, shook off the bloodstains on his dagger, and suddenly changed his expression as he dodged to the side.

  But still a step too slow, the icy sword blade swooshed with a light sound, the arm broke off and flew up, blood splattered everywhere, and the long knife fell to the ground.

  "Ah!"

  He was already severely exhausted, his pale face turned greenish, Lu Qingfeng stared in shock at the blood-soaked severed arm, "You... you didn't die?"

  "Hehe, if I were dead, how could I see such a wonderful scene?"

  He Xueming smiled and looked at Lu Qingfeng with a smile, under the broken clothes in front of his chest, revealing a piece of cyan scales.

  "Brother He, Master He, don't...don't kill me, these are all yours!"

  With a thud, Lu Qingfeng fell to his knees, tears streaming down his face, looking utterly wretched.

  "Alright!"

  Hei Kongming's mouth corners slightly curled up, his body flashed towards Lu Qingfeng, but in an instant his face changed greatly, turning into terror, and he flew out backwards, "Fire Thunder Bullet!"

  "Die!"

  Lu Qingfeng's eyes gleamed with ferocity as he suddenly raised his lone arm, and two black pellets shot out, colliding in mid-air to produce sparks that flew everywhere, followed by a blaze of flames that soared into the sky.

  Rumble!

  A deafening crash shook the air, a hurricane swept in, flames burst forth, smoke and dust billowed, sand and rocks shot out, instantly enveloping an area of several dozen square meters around.

  Cough! Cough!

  After a while, a figure slowly got up and walked out of the gradually clearing smoke and dust. It was unexpectedly Heo Gwang-myeong.

  But it has lost its previous elegance, the blue clothes are all broken, and the cyan scale armor that blocked the iron-backed bear's claws also has countless cracks. The fine steel treasure sword is also unknown where to throw.

  "You actually secretly hid such a powerful weapon as the fire thunderbolt, yet didn't use it earlier. It seems you had planned this all along!"

  He walked up to the incomplete corpse, hugged his arms, and kicked a few fierce kicks. The last kick trampled its skull into a pulp before stopping.

  At this time, the dust settled, and the field was in disarray. Only He Kongming's狼狈 figure remained, standing in front of the trap with a furrowed brow, seemingly deep in thought about how to pull up the massive corpse of Tie Bei Xiong.

  With his one arm blown off, he absolutely can't do this.

  Whoosh!

  Suddenly, a grey shadow darted out from the side, as agile as a flying swallow, yet carrying endless killing intent, striking towards He Kongming's back.

  "What?"

  Hei Kōmei was indeed a 9th-dan martial artist, and even though he had suffered severe injuries, he still managed to sense the attack at the last second, suddenly turning around and slapping his left palm down fiercely.

  Bang!

  Fists and palms intersected, Hei Kōmei flew out with a mouthful of blood, falling to the other side of the pit, rolling far away.

  "Die!"

  With one strike, the gray-clad figure did not stop, flying trap, instantly another fist fell, vaguely like a tiger's roar.

  "Aren't you dead?"

  At the moment he saw the newcomer, Hei Kōmei's face changed greatly, but under the fierce wind, he had no choice but to strike again with his giant palm.

  With a loud crash, this time Hei Kōmei was prepared, but still retreated several steps, his severely injured body couldn't help but kneel halfway to the ground, with blood oozing from the corner of his mouth.

  As far as he knew, Li Chen had a strong resistance to poison, but he had studied Li Chen for over a month and knew that he had no resistance to soft tendon dispersants.

  No matter how he thought, he would never know that Li Chen didn't take the dan medicine he gave him. At the moment when he put his hand to his mouth, it slipped into his sleeve instead.

  "How can I die so easily when Master He has taken care of me?"

  Li Chen smiled coldly and made a series of swift movements with his feet, his body flashing as he launched another fierce attack.

  Kill the tiger but don't finish it off, and you'll be left with future troubles!

  The lion pounces on the rabbit, and also does its best!

  Facing He Kongming's cunning and ruthless nature, any carelessness could lead to his demise. Therefore, Li Chen would never give him a chance to catch his breath.

  "Murdering an inner disciple, do you know it's a capital offense?"

  He Kuoming, desperately resisting and seeking an opportunity to escape, shouted loudly.

  With his heavily injured body, facing the mighty Lei Chen, he didn't have the slightest chance of fighting back.

  After parrying several moves, swift and fierce punches rained down on He Kongming's body like a storm, sending him flying like a broken sack, thudding to the ground with a loud crash, kicking up clouds of dust.

  "Die!"

  Li Chen suddenly jumped up, curled his knees, wrapped his hands around his calves, and violently slammed into He Kongming's chest and abdomen.

  In the midst of a loud, muffled sound, He Kongming's eyes suddenly snapped open, and with a "plop", he spat out a mouthful of fresh blood all over Li Chen. His throat let out a series of gurgling sounds before his head tilted to one side and he fell silent forever.

  "Ah!"

  He took a few deep breaths, and then slowly got up, looking at He Kongming's sunken chest, he clenched his fists tightly.

  At this moment, it signifies the true rise of a youth who has suffered humiliation!

  "Second-order demon core, indeed extraordinary!"

  Looking at the crystal nucleus in his hand, which was still stained with blood and only the size of a dragon eye, but much rounder than a first-order demon core, Li Chen's face showed joy.

  What a pity for him was that the Ironback Bear's body contained highly toxic substances, making its flesh and blood useless; otherwise, its heart's blood would have been an excellent medicine.

  That extremely strong defensive fur, Li Chen didn't even have a sharp tool to peel it off, so he had no choice but to give up. After searching the three corpses of He Kongming and others, he only got a few bottles of top-grade Gathering Breath Dan, and there were very few scattered treasures left, none of which were particularly precious.

  "It seems they've exhausted all their strength in hunting down this Ironback Bear, but in the end, it's a bargain for me!"

  Li Chen put all things into his leather bag and threw the corpses of several people and scattered weapons into the pit trap for burial.

  Pfft!

  He heavily trampled the ground a few times, and Li Chen picked up the leather bag on the ground. With a flash of his body, he rushed into the stone forest. Those weapons were all top-notch among the elite soldiers, but taking them out would likely expose their flaws, so it was best not to be too greedy.

  Corpse littered the ground, and it was already impossible to see that beneath this earth were buried several corpses of cultivators at the ninth layer of the Inner Breath Realm, as well as a corpse of a second-stage initial-phase demon beast. With the potent toxin from the Iron-backed Bear's body, it was likely that before long, all the corpses below would dissolve into pus.

  Before long, along the ground and the surrounding stone walls, Li Chen found a huge cave. The edge of the cave was extremely smooth, which was caused by long-term crawling in and out.

  He threw a few stones inside to test it out, and after making sure there was no danger, Li Chen took out his lighter and lit several dry branches, probing the interior.

  Not as dark and damp as I had imagined, but extremely dry. The ground was covered with soft, dry grass, and the only sound in the entire cave was the rustling of Lei Chen's footsteps.

  He carefully trampled out the fallen sparks, he didn't want to become a 'human torch' in this sudden change.

  "Is there nothing?"

  After walking around in a circle, Li Chen felt extremely disappointed, and his enthusiasm for treasure hunting dissipated by more than half. Except for some scattered bones, there was nothing else in the cave.

  This second-class Ironback bear seems to have no hobby of collecting treasures like other demons.

  Wow!

  A foot kicked out in frustration sent the stone flying far away, and it was unknown where it landed, with a rumbling sound echoing continuously.

  "It's possible!"

  Li Chen's eyes lit up, and he suddenly turned around to look, moving the torch in his hand forward.

  A fiery light shone in response, and a cave entrance came into view. It turned out that he had made a circle in the clockwise direction, but the direction of the cave entrance was not towards the inside of the cave, but rather from a huge boulder facing forward.

  A dimly lit cave, with flickering light and shadow, is the easiest to miss. If not for that stone falling from the top of the cliff and landing right in the cave, it would have been missed.

  He quickened his pace and rushed into the cave, but was suddenly startled, his hair standing on end, and hastily retreated back out.